Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a system for music notation, more specifically to methods for music tablature and particularly to tablature methods wherein the duration of notes is indicated by the font size of an alphanumeric note.
Description of the Related Art
Standard musical notation typically represents the rhythm and duration of a set of musical notes by indicating their pitch on a staff further specified by a clef, usually with a time signature and key signature, whose pitches are further modifiable by the use of accidentals. In contrast to the standard form musical notation, an alternative form of notation has arisen that is often called tablature notation. The general premise of tablature notation differs from standard musical notation because it does not indicate a note's pitch, but rather indicates a specific location on an instrument (such ‘5’, indicating the 5th fret), without specifying the positioning of the hand, the finger to be used, or the posture (spacing) of the fingers on the instrument. These representations of locations on an instrument generally indicate, but do not fully specify, the mechanical operations to be performed on the instrument, and these representations stand in for the musical notes of standard musical notation. However, the main difference between conventional tablature and conventional standard music notation is that conventional tablature does not convey any information concerning pitch.
Since prior art tablature methods represent mechanical operations on the instrument, it makes sense for the tablature representation to visually recreate a physical portion of a physical instrument. Prior art tablature methods for keyboards typically represents a portion of a keyboard, whereas tablature for a stringed instrument typically depicts an instrument's strings. In each case the tablature then indicates the key or string to manipulate. In cases of instruments such as woodwinds, their tablature shows the particular key holes of the instrument to open or close to perform a particular note.
The chief advantage of tablature, as compared to conventional musical notation, is that the tablature describes the operations to be played on an instrument, allowing them to be played without need for traditional music notation. Using tablature, the musician is shown the specific set of operations in lieu of the pitches of the notes. In comparison, with pitch-based standard musical notation the musician must often interpret various fingering possibilities when a pitch can be rendered in more than one location on an instrument. For example, on a guitar in standard tuning, the note “C” could be played on the B string on the first fret, or on the G string at the fifth fret. In standard notation, the note is simply represented as the pitch C, while string, finger posture, and hand position determinations are interpreted by the musician. In prior art tablature, the string and fret position is specified, thus, tablature is more specific in this regard.
However, standard tablature notation has several disadvantages, chiefly that it does not indicate hand positioning or finger posture (finger spacing). In addition, polyphony, or multiple simultaneous musical voices, are not distinguished. Further, the play-style is not represented in the alphanumeric characters of prior art tablature notation. Furthermore, standard tablature is specific to one instrument and is difficult to translate, for instance from violin to cello, without first translating the music into standard pitch-based notation. This limits a student using prior art tablature to a particular instrument and makes translation to another musical instrument painstaking.
Prior art tablature replaces the information regarding the duration and timing of notes with fingering or operation information necessary to perform the note, therefore the rhythm and timing of the notes is only loosely provided, usually requiring tablature to be placed adjacent to rhythm indicators of standard musical notation. This forces the user of standard tablature to either guess at the intent of the composer, or to have a preconceived notion of the timing of the notes when reading unaccompanied tablature. Alternatively, the user is forced to simultaneously interpret both the traditional musical notation and the tablature to correctly render the musical information. Attempts to convey this information, such as by adding flags and stems to the tablature, long for improvement, especially in the form of enhanced precision and simplification.
The invention described herein solves these disadvantages by providing a method for musical notation wherein the duration of notes is indicated by the font size of an alphanumeric note in conjunction with a tone extension symbol providing rhythmic information to the musician using a newly invented tablature format. Additionally, the system described herein indicates the intended string, and explicitly provides the fingering and its posture. Further, this novel system renders alphanumeric notes isomorphically so that the selected font visually represents an articulated play style. Moreover, the alphanumeric notes may be color coded to distinguish polyphonic voices. These advantages and more are presented in further detail herein.